1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a saccharide for supplementing energy to a living body (hereinafter designated as a "SACCHARIDE" and its preparation, more particularly, it relates to SACCHARIDE which comprises neotrehalose, as well as to a composition for supplementing energy to a living body (hereinafter designated as a "COMPOSITION") which contains neotrehalose as the effective ingredient.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Glucose and fructose, which exhibit reducing properties, are conventional saccharides. These saccharides are, however, unstable because of their inherent reducing properties, and usually, the instability is increased in the presence of other nutritional substances such as amino acids and vitamins.
Therefore, there has been a great demand for the establishment of a SACCHARIDE selected from the group consisting of non-reducing saccharides with a satisfactory stability, for example, xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, lactitol, sucrose and trehalose. The monosaccharide alcohols (hydrogenated monosaccharides) such as xylitol and sorbitol have, however, a drawback: They give an acute diarrhea when the dose and administration method are not correctly chosen. As described in Japanese Patent Publication Nos.13,699/72 and 42,506/72, the disaccharide alcohols (hydrogenated disaccharides) such as maltitol and lactitol are not readily metabolized and utilized in vivo. They have been used as a low-caloric sweetener and thus are not suitable for use as a SACCHARIDE. Sucrose has a drawback: It is readily hydrolyzed under acidic conditions into glucose and fructose which exhibit reducing properties, and this hinders the storage stability. As Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.240,758/88 describes "Trehalose is a low-caloric sweetener which is not readily metabolized and absorbed by the human body." and "Trehalose is not readily hydrolyzed by enzymes such as amylases.", it has been recognized that trehalose is a saccharide which does not release energy in a living body, and that preparing trehalose in commercial quantities is very difficult and the preparation thereof has not been studied in detail.